LETTER TO ALFONSE M. D AMATO FROM WILLIAM J. CASEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R001704340038-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 23, 2009
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: August 13, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2009/12/28: CIA-RDP88B00443R001704340038-5
L.v, I Executive Registry
171/4
13 August 1985
The Honorable Alfonse M. D'Amato, Chairman
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Congress of the United States
Washington, D. C. 20515
Dear Al,
I tried to get you on the phone to respond to your letter of August 9
about a CIA witness to testify at the August 15 hearing of the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
What I told Don Regan over a year ago still holds: we have been unable
to pin down sufficient facts to make a solid case that any particular item
received from the Soviet Union has been produced by convict, forced or indentured
labor. According to our most recent analysis, three percent of total Soviet
labor is forced. We get photography which shows prison and labor camps and
industrial centers in some proximity to them. This data, together with the
testimony of emigres, is not specific enough to tie any particular item to
forced labor, although we know in general that the Soviets do have a practice
of putting prisoners into particular plants to engage in production there.
The evidence is just too sketchy to permit calculation of what proportion of
Soviet production of particular items comes from forced labor. As I told
Secretary Regan in 1984, with the ratio of forced labor to the total labor
force at three percent, production by forced labor does not comprise a large
share of overall output and our information from this and emigres is not
specific enough to tie a large share to any specific product.
The role of CIA is to provide the information it is able to develop
to policymakers and for them to use this information in the formulation of
law and policy. Because of my reluctance to put CIA under pressure to prove
something with sketchy evidence, and because I have a statutory obligation
to protect our information sources from disclosure, I hope you will understand
our inability to send a CIA analyst to the hearing in Buffalo.
Yours ,
Orig LC-vja OLL
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William J. Casey
Director of Central Intelligence
UNCLASSIFIED,.
Approved For Release 2009/12/28: CIA-RDP88B00443R001704340038-5